A teacher asked her students to tell the meaning of “lovingkindness”. A little boy jumped up and said, “Well, if I was hungry and someone gave me a piece of bread, that would be kindness. But, if they put a little strawberry jell on it, that would be loving kindness.”

Lovingkindness is not a word that we use often, but it has a lot of special meanings. It is used in several places in the Bible, especially in the writings of King David in the Psalms. Since we are still in the Month of Love, our thoughts should be centered not just on love, but also on kindness.

Too many people get the words “love” and “lust” mixed up. The idea of “falling in love” is probably in reality a lustful event! Love is always a choice. It is a decision that one makes and hopefully made after much investigative study. It is so important that people become friends before they become lust-ers!

I was reading a devotional book that I believe will help us understand the true meaning of “Lovingkindness”. I do not know the author, but I trust they will not mind me adding my own “twist” to their words.

Kindness provides a house, but it takes love to make it a home.

Kindness will pack an adequate sack lunch for our school kids, but love will put in a note of encouragement.

Kindness provides a computer as a learning aid, but love controls the time of use and will insist that a child “signs off”
!
Kindness sends a child to bed on time, but love tucks the covers around the child’s neck and provides a good-night kiss.

Kindness cooks a meal, but love selects the “your favorite food” menu and lights a candle.

Kindness writes a thank-you note, but love slips a joke or photograph inside the envelope
.
Kindness keeps a clean and tidy house, but love allows it to be comfortable to “live in”!

Kindness pours a glass of milk, but love occasionally adds a little chocolate or strawberry syrup to it.

Kindness is doing what is decent, basic, courteous, and necessary for an even, smooth, gentle flow of life, and love adds the extra step to make life truly exciting, creative, and meaningful!

Kindness makes life worth living! Love is what makes life special!

Far too many people have forgotten the meaning of kindness and the simple acts that will follow. If we would concentrate on just being kind one to another, we would find that love, real love, would quickly follow.

Calhoun County: Calhoun County property owners are encouraged to report damage incurred due to Hurricane Harvey to the Calhoun County Appraisal District. This can be done electronically by email or in person at the appraisal district office located at 426 W. Main in Port Lavaca. Appraisers are currently working throughout the county in the annual reappraisal. Property is appraised according to market value as of January 1, of each year. If your property was adversely affected because of the hurricane or any other reason and has not been repaired or replaced prior to January 1 of 2018 we need to know. This could mean a reduction in your property value for tax purposes for the 2018 tax year.

Photos and information can be submitted via email at: harveydamage2018@gmail.com

Appraisal district staff will be monitoring this email’s inbox. After you have submitted the email you will receive a confirmation email that it has been received by the appraisal district. Please be sure to identify your property by account number/property id, name, address and telephone number. Should you have any questions please contact our office for assistance at 361-552-8808. We appreciate your patience and cooperation.

“The Way I See It” is an attempt by the columnist to enlighten readers on a subject as he views it, and does not necessarily reflect the views of this publication.

The MEMO, and a bit about DACA

To understand why FBI & DoJ officials were corrupt, and so desperate for Hillary to win the Presidency, we must go back to the “First” Russian uranium scandal in 2009 when Robert Mueller was FBI Director. The Russian nuclear energy company, Rosatom/Tenex and their American sales company, Tenam, were trying to expand their sales in the US and hired a lobbyist. The lobbyist was “uncomfortable” with possible bribery and money laundering and went to the FBI. The U.S. Attorney responsible for the case was Rod Rosenstein. Also, Rosatom wanted to buy Uranium One (U1), owned by Canadian Frank Guistra, Bill Clinton’s friend and major donor. Bill helped him gain control of some mines in Kazakhstan, and acquire U1 by merger. There was a threat of U1 losing their mines to the dictator, and Hillary as SecState helped smooth that over. Rosatom wanted to buy U1 because it later included about 20% of US uranium output, so needed approval of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, composed of 14 leaders of US Govt agencies, to buy it. . Hillary fixed that, too. Bill and the Clinton Foundation got $ millions.

Vadim Mikerin, the head of Tenam, was arrested in 2014 with several of his confederates, for crimes that went back to 2004. The DoJ allowed him to plead out to a lesser offense to keep the case from going to a public trial. The US Attorneys were Rod Rosenstein and Andrew Weissman. This was a cover-up to keep the potential scandal off the news, and not get the U1 deal in the public eye. The Mikerin scandal has been recently re-opened. Weissman is one of the head prosecutors for the Mueller Investigation. Rod Rosenstein is Deputy Attorney General who appointed Mueller to the phony Trump/Russia Collusion Investigation. All have a vested interest in keeping the lid on the U1 deal & Mikerin cover-up. As does Eric Holder and Obama for their part in the U1 deal and not arresting Mikerin in 2010.
(To website: http://www.nationalreview.com/article/452972/uranium-one-deal-obama-administration-doj-hillary-clinton-racketeering?utm_campaign=trueanthem&utm_content=59eb306e04d3016f3ce10446&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter)

Also many of these same actors were involved with James Comey and Loretta Lynch in the Hillary Email cover-up. That also will come up again, there is too much evidence of lying, collusion, cover-up of real threats to National Security to be ignored. And much of the “DNC hacking” was done by Imran Awan & his Pakistani family that Debbie Wasserman Shultz hired as the DNC IT guys. And Donna Brazile outed the Hillary Campaign for the theft of some $84 million from the State Democrat Parties. Three more scandals waiting for publication.

The “Memo” is based on actual reports and data from the FBI and DoJ that the Congressional investigators had to pry out of them. The FBI knew they had committed numerous crimes, with malicious intent, to make Hillary Clinton President, by fraud, to protect themselves from investigation and indictment. This fraudulent and malicious FISA wire-tap, for pure political reasons, is just the beginning. We will see Gross Malfeasance of Office and Election Tampering charges against many high officials in the Obama Administration. Careers and reputations will be, and MUST BE destroyed. And is just the tip of the iceberg that is leading to many more investigations.

Regardless whoever actually started the ‘Opposition Research’ to publicly malign Trump by Fusion GPS, Hillary and the DNC paid for it, and got Trump-hater, Senator John McCain, to push it to the FBI as “facts”. Fusion GPS hired Chris Steele, a former MI6 British spy with “ many contacts in Russia” to try to prove Trump had some illegal contacts there. Hillary and the DNC, through their lawyers at Perkins Coie, paid for the “salacious and unverified” ‘Dossier’, and most people involved knew it. Associate Deputy Attorney General Bruce Ohr was involved with Steele in trying to use the “salacious and unverified”Dossier as “Evidence” to gain the FISA warrant to wire-tap Trump & his campaign. Ohr’s wife, Nellie Ohr, worked with Fusion GPS creating the fraudulent dossier, so Ohr knew it was fraudulent and so did his bosses. Steele even told Ohr in September 2016 , “he was desperate that Donald Trump not be elected, and passionate about him not being President.” In October the FBI was using the “Dossier” they knew was fraudulent as “evidence” to gain the FISA warrant, and using Media articles based on ‘leaks’ by Steele to support the fraud. Jim Comey and Loretta Lynch were already “in the tank” for Hillary in the Email cover-up, Peter Strzok, FBI, and Lisa Page, DoJ, both adamantly anti-Trump Hillary supporters, were gleefully emailing about the ‘insurance policy’. Bill Priestap was Strzok’s boss, and Sally Yates was Priestap’s. All knew and were desperate for Hillary to win to keep the other cover-ups hidden. Comey (knowingly, fraudulently, and criminally) signed FISA warrants, as did Andrew McCabe on one. AG Loretta
Lynch & Sally Yates signed off on them, and Obama had to know; it was a last ditch effort to really destroy Trump, even after the election. The “Russia! Russia! Russia!” cry to terrorize, indite, or impeach Trump was shear desperation, and continued with Media demands for new AG Jeff Sessions to recuse himself. So Comey/Lynch co-conspirator Rod Rosenstein became Acting AG and appointed Robert Mueller, god-father of the original cover-ups, as the Special Investigator into the phony Trump/Russia Collusion that was created by the fraudulent “Dossier” paid for with Hillary & DNC money, and touted by the Lefty/Lib Media. Also, State Dept employees were used by Hillary operative Sidney Blumenthal to pass “info from ‘Russians’ developed by the Hillary Campaign” to Chris Steele to use in the dossier as ‘evidence’. All false. Willfully, knowingly, and intentionally false.

As the investigation widens, more info is being released. Chris Steele was paid by Hillary & the DNC, and also by the FBI. He was terminated by the FBI when they discovered he was “leaking” to the Media. Much of the “Russian Info” was given to Steele from contacts in the State Dept. They got it from “friends of Hillary that got it from the Russians”. Gossip. Also, Carter Page was an “Undercover Employee” (UCE) for the FBI in 2013 in a sting against some Russian spies. Was he a plant by the FBI to facilitate the FISA warrants? This whole thing looks like a ‘Set-up’ to get the FISA warrant illegally! Curiouser and curiouser.

The Conspiracy was diabolically simple, the “spy”, Carter Page, was sent by the FBI to join the Trump Campaign. The “investigator”, Chris Steele was paid by Hillary & the DNC to write the “dossier”, largely based on false accusations furnished by Hillary supporters. And the FBI used that as “evidence” to secure a FISA warrant to wire-tap ‘Carter Page’ and anyone he had any alleged contact in the Trump Campaign, even though they knew none of the “salacious and unverified” allegations had been vetted as true. Then the “dossier” & FISA warrant are used as the excuse for the Mueller Special Investigation, which has proven no “collusion” between Trump & his campaign and the Russians. So now they are sifting for any “Obstruction of Justice” or campaign irregularities to find “something Indictable”.
But there is none connected to Trump, only huge collusion, election fraud, and obstruction of justice connected to Hillary & her campaign, and the FBI, DoJ, and the State Dept. And the cover-up continues in the “Mainstream Media”.

Now it is all coming out. And so will the previous criminal scandals that preceded, and probably caused the “desperate necessity” for this horrible mess. Hillary Clinton owns it all. But, Obama helped. As did all their loyal minions hoping for favors from on high. All “Democrat Party” politics and criminal conspiracy. Probably the worst in America’s history. And so incredibly DUMB!

And waiting in the wings is DACA. The Constitution, Article I, Section 8, para 4, specifically empowers Congress to decide Naturalization and Immigration laws. The Executive branch is supposed to ENFORCE them. Obama reneged on his duty and “changed” the law by Executive Order creating the DACA Program. An Anti-Constitutional usurpation of power. And he did it to intentionally change the demographics and political power in the United States, to further the “change” to an Internationalist and Socialist State. SCOTUS will have to decide, will we be a Constitutional Republic or some failing socialist state?

I think many of us have at some point thought how fun it would be to be a bird… soar the skies and enjoy nature.  To be a bird… what a nice life!  Yes, I’m sure it is.  But it’s also a really tough life for the roughly 20 billion birds that live in the U.S., and surviving to die of old age is probably rather rare in the bird world.

Mother Nature herself is not kind!  Predators, whether other birds, mammals, or reptiles, are always hungry, looking for a meal.  Inclement weather, including storms, cold, and extreme heat takes a toll.  Food and water sources dry up and habitats change. There are so many natural threats to birds it’s a wonder very many even grow up to adulthood.   As if that weren’t enough, the modern bird faces so many more threats.

Windows allow us sunlight and a view into nature.  We need that to survive and live a nice healthy life.  Window strikes by birds also cause over one billion bird deaths per year in the U.S.!  That’s a huge number.  One billion!  Birds don’t see the glass, thinking it’s an opening to fly through.  Often the window is reflecting views of trees and it looks natural to a bird.  Tall buildings in cities that leave lights on at night attract migrating birds which contributes to the massive number of window strikes.
Cell towers kill an estimated 7 million birds annually in the U.S.  The birds are attracted to the white lights on the towers at night, circling the tower till they strike one of the steel cables holding the tower up.  Wind turbines kill large numbers of birds annually as well, but I don’t think we know how many.

Car strikes are the cause of another 80 million bird lives lost per year in the U.S.  This is another huge number of casualties, caused mostly by birds not being able to judge vehicle speed to help them avoid the collision.  This is of course a danger to humans as well.

We use a huge amount of disposable plastic items every day, and most are not recycled.  Bottle caps, straws, and wrappers all end up in the environment.  Sea birds are particularly affected by this, as plastic flows into rivers and oceans where birds mistake them for food.  Even inland birds are found dead with bellies full of plastic.  Not long ago several endangered California Condors were found dead from this.

Lead has long been a bird killer.  Fishing weights (sinkers) and lead shot from guns are picked up by water birds and eaten, slowly killing them.  Over 100,000 birds are estimated to die in the U.S. from lead each year.

Industrial, household and agricultural chemicals are much better regulated today, and are not quite the killer they once were, but birds still die from them each year.  To the tune of about 100 million a year.  This often happens by a slow buildup of the chemical inside the bird, but large die offs by exposure still happen every year.
Many of us enjoy a nice morning of fishing along the coast.  However fishing line left discarded along beaches and jetties are a death penalty for birds. Birds get tangled up and can’t fly, starving to death.  Some get hooks caught in their throats with the same result.

There are millions of house cat lovers in the U.S.  I am one of them, but I only keep them indoors.   There are tens of millions of outdoor cats in the U.S. and they are estimated to kill an average of 2.4 billion birds per year in the U.S.!   Cats are good at hunting birds.

There are some solutions and ways we can help protect the longevity and health of our feathered friend’s lives. Here are a few web sites with further information:
http://www.birds.cornell.edu/Page.aspx%3Fpid%3D1184
http://www.audubon.org/news/how-flashing-lights-cell-towers-can-save-birds-lives
https://abcbirds.org/program/cats-indoors/cats-and-birds/

Martin Hagne is the Executive Director of the Gulf Coast Bird Observatory.  The GCBO is a non-profit organization dedicated to saving the birds and their habitats along the entire Gulf Coast, and beyond into their Central and South America wintering grounds.